While three New York lesbians last weekend did their part to oppose Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by spending Sunday night in one of DC’s toughest jail cells, six others defied armed forces limitations by completing a 7.5 mile, uphill, mud-sucking, Special-Forces-approved obstacle race in Pennsylvania to benefit wounded war veterans.

A side-by-side comparison of the fearlessness:

There lesbians affiliated with New York’s Queer Rising activist group, Natasha Dillon, Nora Camp and Iona DiBona, anointed with their aliases (usually consisting of the word “Equality” in them) and equipped with signs, boarded a bus bound for DC at 6 am Sunday morning. Team Outdoor Carpet Munchers, on the other hand, suited up in their spandex, pulled on their beaver-themed jerseys and munched Power-Bars on the two-hour drive to Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Allentown, readying themselves to run, jump and splat with 4,500 other people, mostly men, many of whom were former military.

Right about noon, the Queer Rising activists took their posts in Lafayette Park, just outside the White House’s front gates, and started demanding the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a political promise made by President Barak Obama in his January 27, State of the Union address. They were joined by Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate-turned-activist expelled from the military under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and former presidential hopeful and DNC chair, Howard Dean. Choi had already chained himself to the White House gates twice in April and couldn’t do it again. The group had a void to fill.

About the same time, the first group of Team Outdoor Carpet Munchers started their sodden sojourn. Shouting their own rallying cry, “Munch, Munch, Munch,” they ran down a steep hill, headed back up to crawl through Obstacle #1, the “Sweaty Yeti” – a patch of wet snow – on their hands and knees and then tackled “The Cliffhanger” a near-90-degree incline straight uphill. Turns through the Boa Constrictor, a ten-foot long stretch of drainage pipe, and the Swamp Stomp followed, leaving the Munchers covered in head-to-toe mud.

“There is little more thrilling than watching your drenched teammates emerge on the other